A charitable donation for $5,000, a promise to ignore past missteps– that’s the price asked of The London Free Press for interviews and photos with two defeated former politicians trying to make political comebacks on London city council.

Two members of the so-called Fontana 8 voting bloc from the last city council, both of whom were ousted in 2014 but are running again in the Oct. 22 civic election, responded to Free Press interview requests with conditions one media expert calls “outrageous.”

Bud Polhill and Stephen Orser. (File photos)

Bud Polhill and Stephen Orser separately said they’d agree to be interviewed for a story about political comebacks, but only under their rules.

The Free Press said no.

In Orser’s case, it was a $5,000 donation to the Sisters of St. Joseph – a gift he said he’d match — in exchange for a photo.

The next day, Polhill said he’d participate only if there was no mention of tire purchases he and three other defeated politicians made at his auto shop, and billed to taxpayers, after the last election but before they had left office.

Both candidates “should know better,” said April Lindgren, a Ryerson University journalism professor with a speciality in local news and politics.

“To think that the news media’s role is to support a candidate’s favourite charity, or to withhold information about their past shenanigans, is outrageous,” she said. “Clearly, they have a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the news media in a democracy.”

Despite a growing trend of political candidates bypassing traditional media in favour of sharing their own unfiltered messages on social media, the head of Western University’s local government program suggested an open exchange between civic election candidates and reporters is important.

“The expectation is that if you’re running for political office, you’re going to be available to the media and you would want to use the media to try to get your message out there,” said Joseph Lyons, a political science professor.

The Free Press contacted both candidates over the weekend to set up an interview and photograph. Orser’s campaign manager texted back to explain the Ward 4 candidate would permit “one question, via text.”

When asked about a photo, The Free Press was sent this message:

“If you want a photograph from Mr. Orser he would be more than happy to oblige. It will take a $5,000 donation from the LFP to the Sisters of St. Joseph hospitality centre and he will match that donation.”

In a separate exchange, Polhill told a reporter, photographer and editor that he wanted to be sure the story would not include any information about 2014 transactions at his auto body shop that prompted a change to the council expense policy.

After losing in the 2014 election – but before the official end of the council term and the loss of council expense accounts – four defeated councillors replaced their tires at Bud Polhill Automotive. Joe Swan, Sandy White, Orser and Polhill submitted those costs – an allowable expense, even if the optics were poor — because councillors use their vehicles for city business.

The move enraged many Londoners and led to a change in the expense rules for council.

Refusing the recent interview, Polhill said he didn’t want to reignite reminders of those expenses, and adding the cost was justified because he hadn’t billed taxpayers for any other vehicle work over his 26-year run on council.

Lindgren said the conditions the two candidates laid out for talking to the newspaper could raise questions for voters about what other deals they might privately be trying to cut.

“It’s shocking, and I hope the voters are shocked,” she said. “Our first obligation is to serving our audiences, which means providing our audiences with independent, verified, timely news about candidates in an election campaign so that people can exercise their rights in a democracy.”

Lyons agreed the conditions set by Polhill and Orser were “disheartening.”

“The job of the media is to shine a light on what’s going on, to hold candidates and politicians in political office to account,” he said. “Any kind of side arrangements would seriously jeopardize the ability of the media to perform that role.”

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